I am writing to request information from the Information
Commissioner's Office (ICO) pursuant to Section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I seek the following information from the ICO:

(a) the details of all complaints made to the ICO
(b) the outcome of each of the complaints in (a) above.

For the avoidance of doubt this request is not inclusive of statutory matters such as internal reviews under the FOIA. The request relates solely to complaints made under your "Complaints and compliments" process (i.e. those complaints that could potentially end up being examined by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman if the complainer is dissatisfied with the response issued by the ICO in relation to their complaint). The period that this request covers is 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011.

If the ICO estimates that to comply with this request for information would exceed the appropriate cost limit then I will be willing to accept the information described in (a) and (b) above for the period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011.

I look forward to receiving your response. If I can be of any assistance to the ICO in your handling of this request for information then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your email of today's date in which you have made a request
for information to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We will respond by 22 February 2012 which is 20
working days from the day after we received your request.

Should you wish to reply to this email, please be careful not to amend the
information in the ‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the information
is added directly to your case. However, please be aware that this is an
automated process; the information will not be read by a member of our
staff until your case is allocated to a request handler.

Yours sincerely

Joanne Crowley
Lead Internal Compliance Officer

____________________________________________________________________

The ICO’s mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest,
promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.
Communication by internet email is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress. If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.
Any email including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. Email
monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you
have a responsibility to ensure that any email you write or forward is
within the bounds of the law.
The Information Commissioner's Office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.
You should perform your own virus checks.
__________________________________________________________________

I am writing further to our email dated 25 January 2012 in which we
acknowledged your request for information to the Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

As previously explained we are treating your request as a request for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Specifically your request stated;
“I seek the following information from the ICO:

(a) the details of all complaints made to the ICO
(b) the outcome of each of the complaints in (a) above.

For the avoidance of doubt this request is not inclusive of statutory
matters such as internal reviews under the FOIA. The request relates
solely to complaints made under your "Complaints and compliments" process
(i.e. those complaints that could potentially end up being examined by the
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman if the complainer is
dissatisfied with the response issued by the ICO in relation to their
complaint). The period that this request covers is 1 January 2011 to 31
December 2011.”

As we understand it from the above you are asking for information in
relation to case review and service complaints made to the ICO as outlined
on our [1]website.

As you may be aware the ICO uses an electronic case management system in
order to administer the complaints which we receive, including case
reviews and service complaints. For case reviews and service complaint
cases the case handler selects from a list on the case the reason for case
review/reason for service complaint and also selects from a list the
outcome of the case.

In regard to case reviews closed between 1 January 2011 and 31 December
2011 please refer to the table below which shows the reason for the case
review and the outcome as recorded on our system;

For your information the abbreviation “PECR” refers to the Privacy and
Electronic Communications Regulations and “DPA” refers to the Data
Protection Act. The relevant sections of the legislation referred to
above are publically available from the following links;

In regard to service complaints closed between 1 January 2011 and 31
December 2011, please refer to the table below which shows the reason for
the service complaint and the outcome as recorded on our system;

For your information “S51” relates to the DPA and a copy of the
legislation is available from the link above.

We are aware that sometimes the whatdotheyknow website does not display
the formatting of our emails correctly, therefore in the event that you
are unable to view the tables above please let us know and I will resend
this response as an attachment instead.

I trust that the information above is of use to you however if you are
dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to request a
review of our decision or make a complaint about how your request has been
handled you should write to the Internal Compliance Department at the
address below or e-mail [5][email address]

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please write
to the First Contact Team, at the address below or visit the ‘Complaints’
section of our website to make a Freedom of Information Act or
Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.

A copy of our review procedure is available [6]here.

Yours sincerely

Joanne Crowley
Lead Internal Compliance Officer

____________________________________________________________________

The ICO’s mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest,
promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.
Communication by internet email is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress. If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.
Any email including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. Email
monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you
have a responsibility to ensure that any email you write or forward is
within the bounds of the law.
The Information Commissioner's Office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.
You should perform your own virus checks.
__________________________________________________________________

Thank you for emailing the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This
is an automatic acknowledgement to tell you we have received your email
safely. Please do not reply to this email.

If your email was about a new complaint or request for advice it will be
considered by our Customer Contact Department. One of our case officers
will be in touch as soon as possible.

If your email was about an ongoing case we are dealing with it will be
allocated to the person handling your case.

If your email was about a case you have already submitted, but is yet to
be allocated to one of our case officers your email will be added to your
original correspondence and will be considered when your case is
allocated.

If you require any further assistance please contact our Helpline on 0303
123 1133 or 01625 545745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office

Yours sincerely

ICO Customer Contact Department

____________________________________________________________________

The ICO’s mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest,
promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.
Communication by internet email is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress. If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.
Any email including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. Email
monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you
have a responsibility to ensure that any email you write or forward is
within the bounds of the law.
The Information Commissioner's Office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.
You should perform your own virus checks.
__________________________________________________________________

1 Attachment

Thank you for your email of today’s date in regard to the tables of
information which we provided in response to your request.

I have attached a pdf copy of our response so that the whatdotheyknow
website will display the correct formatting of the tables.

For your information the blank box in the case review table and the blank
box in the service complaint table should both show a “0” as there were no
such cases, please accept my apologies that this was omitted from my
email.

Yours sincerely

Joanne Crowley
Lead Internal Compliance Officer

____________________________________________________________________

The ICO’s mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest,
promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.
Communication by internet email is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress. If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.
Any email including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. Email
monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you
have a responsibility to ensure that any email you write or forward is
within the bounds of the law.
The Information Commissioner's Office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.
You should perform your own virus checks.
__________________________________________________________________